Opera 12 Alpha, also codenamed as Opera Next, has stepped out of the shadows and is now available for you to download. The Opera Software team has been working hard integrating a new HTML5 rendering engine, tweaking the navigation bar and most notably enabling full hardware acceleration for web page rendering.

What’s great about this hardware acceleration feature is that all the elements of a webpage get rendered by your graphics card, which increases the speed of displaying the page on your monitor. Read more »

Have you ever heard of quantum superconductors? Well, you’ll want to see what they can do when you throw in some magnets. This is just the kind of thing that can result in an antigravity car, like uncle Ben and Luke rode around on Tatooine.

Check out the video to see the quantum-y levitation action Read more »

With the hype circling around Siri there hasn’t been much talk of the new iPhone’s 8 MP camera and especially the bumped up 1080p video recording.

Let’s get down to it – an enthusiast decided to pit the iPhone 4S against the immensely popular among film makers Canon 5d MkII. The discipline of choice was video recording and the result is pretty damn interesting. Read more »

Samsung is launching their ChatON service today – a free service that lets you send text messages (including group chat), multimedia and even hand-drawn animated messages. The Android app is live now and there’s a Bada app incoming. Some feature phones are getting it too.

Basically, ChatON is Samsung’s answer to iMessage and BBM, with the added advantage of covering more platforms than just iOS and BlackBerry. Both platform will be supported by ChatON in the future. Read more »

Canon has just raised the stakes in the DSLR game with the announcement of their new flagship EOS-1D X camera, the ‘X’ part being the Roman numeral for 10 since it is their tenth generation EOS camera. This new monster DSLR comes with a full-frame 18 megapixel sensor. Canon has opted for a lower resolution sensor in favor of larger individual pixel size, which is now the largest on any Canon camera.

Other impressive stuff includes a new 61-point auto focus system, 252 zone metering, 12fps shooting in RAW (14fps in JPEG), ISO 204,800 and HD video recording. Read more »

Let me be clear up front – this video is not suitable if your heart misses a beat every time you see a tech device getting abused. With that said, we urge you to take a look at this cool experiment courtesy of the guys from SquareTrade.

They get a hot Apple iPhone 4S and Samsung Galaxy S II and drop them three times from different heights onto concrete. While here at GSMArena we may test everything there is to test on a mobile device, we can’t test how physically strong and durable these devices actually are. So, if you are interested how the iPhone 4S and the Galaxy S II fare on this test, watch this video. Read more »

An insider source has apparently disclosed to The Korea Times that Apple is indeed counting on Samsung to produce its quad-core custom A6 processor that should be showcased in the next iPhone and iPad incarnations – whether 5 and 3 or something involving the letter “S” and so forth.

A supposed exec from an Apple parts supplier has said that Apple is in talks with Samsung over the shipments of its A6 processor and that Apple still views Samsung as a “critical business partner”. Read more »

Starbucks UK just announced it will be offering its iOS-using customers a free download with every purchase. This download will be received via a “Pick of the Week” download card with a 60-day period in which the customer will be able to redeem their complimentary item.

The offer has been available for Starbucks US coffee houses since 2006 and comes to the UK a week after the company announced free Wi-Fi access without the need to register. Read more »

According to Rodman & Renshaw analyst Ashok Kumar, the next version of the iPhone is the last project the late Steve Jobs was “intimately involved with from concept to final design” and that’s why the iPhone 5 will become a truly “cult classic”.

Continuing his analysis, Kumar goes on to saying that the iPhone 5 will be the same size of the current iPhone 4(S), but with a slimmer profile and a larger screen. Read more »

When Apple announced the iPhone 4S, one of the features they mentioned in the keynote was the new antenna system. The antenna system on the iPhone 4 caused a lot of controversy last year due to its failure to hold on to the network when the gap on the side was bridged by your hand, a very likely scenario. Apple’s solution to this was to provide free Bumper cases, a change in the network signal bar algorithm and a suggestion to hold the phone differently.

With the iPhone 4S, Apple changed the antenna system. It now has two antennas and it can automatically switch between them, even during a call, to ensure the phone remains connected regardless of how you hold it. But has it worked? Let’s find out. Read more »

Well, we knew this day was coming but one still can’t help but feel bad. After HP thought it had enough of Palm and decided to stop producing the phones and the TouchPad, it was only a matter of time before the retail stores that were selling these devices exclusively would be shuttered.

Before the shops were closes, however, HP did offer some tantalizing discounts on the remaining products to clear the stocks. Read more »

You knew it was only a matter of time before iFixit got its hands on the new iPhone 4S and skillfully tore it apart and like clockwork, they have. As usual, this brought on some interesting discoveries.

First of all, even on the inside the iPhone 4S looks identical to the iPhone 4 although there’s more than what meets the eye. Read more »

If you’re an iPhone 4 user who was contemplating upgrading to the iPhone 4S after watching the impressive Siri demo then you might want to hold on to your current phone a little longer. Because as it turns out you can make Siri work on the iPhone 4, sort of.

The hack you see below was performed by developer Steven Troughton-Smith who has been working for 9to5Mac to get Siri working on the iPhone 4. This was accomplished by copying the iPhone 4S Siri and Springboard files on to the iPhone 4. Read more »

The HTC Amaze 4G was just launched on T-Mobile’s network in the United States. The smartphone shares the Qualcomm Snapdragon S3 chipset with the T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II, which we recently reviewed.

In addition to the latest and greatest Snapdragon S3 chipset, the HTC Amaze 4G packs a seriously capable 8MP camera unit. The snapper has plenty of shooting modes, and two dedicated buttons. All in all, the device has more than enough on board to spark our geeky interest.

Like we mentioned above, Read more »

The Walkman brand is making a comeback in the Sony Ericsson lineup – if the W8 seemed unconvincing, the Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman should dispel any remaining doubt.

The specs sheet quotes the Xperia mini most of the time, but there are some changes exclusive to Live – like the stereo speakers on the back, the dedicated Walkman button and accompanying light. The screen has grown to 3.2″, but has kept the HVGA resolution. Read more »